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About

Mildly Interesting is a subsection of Reddit in which people share photos of things they consider to be sufficiently noteworthy, though not exceptional.

Origin

On February 4th, 2012, an image (shown below) was posted to the /r/WTF subreddit[4] criticizing the recent posts on the subreddit at the time as being “mildly interesting,” rather than evocative of WTF. In the comments[5], Redditor doginabathtub[2] announced that he had created the subreddit /r/MildlyInteresting[3] based on the hypothetical category and invited others to subscribe. In a comment the following day, doginabathtub described the subreddit as a place for “the pleasant, the slightly amusing, and the somewhat intriguing, sometimes.”[6] As of July 2013, the subreddit has attracted more than 344,000 subscribers and is the 28th most-active subreddit.

Precursor

The phrase “mildly interesting” has been used online since as early as July 2005 to describe things that are not completely captivating, but worth checking out. On July 10th, 2005, nostalgia site X-Entertainment[1] posted a compilation of “mildly interesting” print ads found in magazines and comic books from the 1980s (shown below).

Spread

On August 22nd, 2012, internet culture blog Slacktory[7] highlighted a collection of notable images from /r/MildlyInteresting, noting that the subreddit had accrued more than 40,000 readers in the first seven months. In January 2013, the subreddit was linked on MetaFilter[9] and mentioned in a photo post on Odd Stuff Magazine.[8] In March 2013, the Twitter account @MildInteresting[10] was launched, reposting photos and text snippets from the subreddit’s front page (shown below).

On June 24th, 2013, Business Insider[11] published a compilation of 14 photos from the subreddit, which was syndicated via Yahoo! FInance[12] later that same day.

Notable Examples

Derivatives

As of June 2013, there are 28 derivative subreddits in Reddit’s Mild Network,[17] including /r/MildlyAmusing[18] and /r/MildlyInterestingIAmA.[30] In addition, there is a Tumblr tag[14] for other images deemed mildly interesting.

The Mild Network

/r/MildlyAmusing[18]: A subreddit community for the curation of mildly amusing photographs.

/r/MildlyAwesome[19]: A subreddit community for the curation of mildly awesome photographs and news.

/r/MildlyAww[20] : A subreddit community for the curation of mildly cute photographs and stories.

/r/MildlyClever[21] : A subreddit community for the curation of mildly clever DIY ideas and comments.

/r/MildlyConfusing[22]: A subreddit community for the curation of mildly confusing photographs.

/r/MildlyCreepy[23]: A subreddit community for the curation of mildly creepy photographs.

/r/MildlyDangerous[24]: A subreddit community for the curation of photographs of mildly dangerous situations.

/r/MildlyDepressing[25]: A subreddit community for the curation of photographs of mildly depressing situations.

/r/MildlyDisgusting:[26] A subreddit community the for curation of mildly disgusting photographs.

/r/MildlyDisturbing:[27] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly disturbing photographs.

/r/MildlyEnteristing:[28] A subreddit community for the curation of photographs that would seem mildly interesting if you had just smoked marijuana.

/r/MildlyImpressive:[29] A subreddit community for curation of mildly impressive photographs.

/r/MildlyInterestingMC (Minecraft):[31] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly interesting screen shots and stories from the game Minecraft.

/r/MildlyOffensive:[32] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly offensive photographs.

/r/MildlyPleasing:[33] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly pleasing photographs.

/r/MildlySatisfying:[34] A subreddit community for the curation of photographs that leave the viewer feeling mildly satisfied.

/r/MildlyStupid:[35] A subreddit community for the curation of stories of Reddit users being mildly stupid.

/r/MildlyUninteresting:[36] A subreddit community for the curation of stories and facts from Reddit users that are mildly uninteresting.

/r/MildlyWeird:[37] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly weird photographs and videos.

/r/MildlyWTF:[38] A subreddit community for the curation of mildly confusing photographs.